Tunisian Premier Says He’ll Resign If Government Plan Fails

Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jbeli
said he will step down if his attempt to form a technocratic
government fails amid unrest sparked by the murder of a senior
opposition leader this week.

“I am defending the interest of my country and will go
forward to form this government,” Jbeli said in an interview
with al-Jazeera television aired yesterday. If his Islamist
Ennahda party rejects the proposal, he will submit his
resignation to the president, Jbeli said.

The Feb. 6 killing of Democratic Patriots party leader
Chukri Beleid and suspicions that it was carried out on Ennahda
orders led to the most serious crisis in Tunisia since protests
two years ago began the so-called Arab Spring Uprisings.

Jbeli and the secular president, Moncef Marzouki, condemned
the assassination, urging Tunisians not to be dragged into
violence. Jbeli’s announcement that he was setting up a
technocratic government before elections marked a concession to
an opposition that has accused Islamists of seeking to
monopolize power.

Four secular opposition parties withdrew from the
government after the murder, and Jbeli’s own party has rejected
his proposal. Thousands of people joined anti-government
protests last week as Beleid was buried.